


Friends in Any Time

by JoRaskoph



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Community: HPFT, Friendship, Gen, Hot Chocolate, Hufflepuff Pride, Minister for Magic Hermione Granger, Time Travel, Time Turner (Harry Potter)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-26
Updated: 2020-03-26
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:47:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23328745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoRaskoph/pseuds/JoRaskoph
Summary: Rose Granger-Weasley has never expected to wander in her mother’s brave, rule-breaking footsteps, but when a friend is in trouble, Rose discovers that she is capable of more than she thought.
Kudos: 4





	Friends in Any Time

Rose Granger-Weasley had never expected to wander in her mother’s brave, rule-breaking footsteps.

At the tender age of three her uncle George had told her a first—heavily censored, as she later found out—version of her parents’ adventures at Hogwarts. The tale included the beheading of a Hippogriff and upon hearing it, little Rose had promptly vomited half a packet of Sugar Quills onto the shiny floor of Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes. She’d never finished that packet and forever lost her appetite for Sugar Quills.

At six years old, Rose had found herself stuck in a tree in the garden of the Burrow after having to flee from her rowdy cousins’ re-enactment of uncle Harry’s fight with a Horntail dragon. Everyone else seemed to enjoy the wild stories, but Rose just felt sick. Almost an hour passed before Grandma Molly noticed Rose’s absence and came to rescue her.

When her cousins excitedly discussed their dream careers as Aurors or Curse Breakers, envisioning daring fights and eternal glory, Rose silently dreamed about an office filled with dust and books. It would have a solid wooden door that she could shut to lock out all the unpleasantness that the others couldn’t wait to run into.

For a while, she’d hoped to find a related soul in little Lily Luna—who was a girl too, and weren’t girls supposed to be the cautious ones? But then, barely older than five, Lily got suspended from kindergarten for getting into a fistfight and Rose knew all hope was lost.

She was just different, Rose had to accept it.

Being the only one in her extended family who hated not just engaging in but also hearing about mortal danger and physical violence, was more difficult than it should have been.

Over the years, Rose had learned to politely tune out what she didn’t want to hear, because saying she didn’t want to hear about something never worked and only spurred the narrators on to go into even more gory detail. Time and again family members with good intentions tried to outdo each other to amuse her with stories in which other family members nearly—or actually—lost their pets, limbs and even lives to the war. A war that had made their family famous.

Coming to Hogwarts would have been difficult if Rose had not known in advance how much she differed from what people expected from a Granger-Weasley child. As it was, she got the disappointing everyone part out of the way by being sorted into Hufflepuff and walking away whenever one of her new housemates brought up the war or her family’s association with it.

Her strategy didn’t make her popular, but she found one friend in the bed next to hers: a muggle-born witch named Clara, who cried herself to sleep the first night away from home and jumped every time a ghost floated past. Clara had two blond braids, kind eyes and never talked about war at all.

Together with Clara, Hogwarts wasn’t bad.

There was, obviously, the library to enjoy—which they did often and with enthusiasm, even being mistaken for Ravenclaws that one time. But they also had house-wide study groups with hot chocolates in the common room; once disabused of their ideas of what Rose Granger-Weasley should be like, her other housemates had accepted her into their group willingly enough. But Clara remained Rose’s favourite.

By Christmas break, they were inseparable.

Having had to spend the actual holidays apart from her friend, Rose was a coil of nervous excitement ready to bounce, when she was standing in front Clara’s door and pressing the peculiar little plastic button.

It took a little while for the door to buzz and grant her entry, and Rose spent the time blissfully imagining the fun they’d have all afternoon, lounging around in Clara’s room. She’d finally get to see for herself the internet and this youtube thing, which Clara had often and longingly told her about. There were supposed to be kittens in it, though Rose did not quite understand how that worked.

She also hoped there would be hot chocolate and no excitement at all. It would be a welcome break after spending Christmas with her crazy family.

Then the door opened and Rose was greeted by a red-faced and devastated Clara. “Thank God you are here!”, was all Clara got out before she threw herself at Rose and sobbed into her Weasley jumper.

Rose had never expected to wander in her mother’s footsteps, but now—two hours after ringing at Clara’s door—she was breaking into the Minister for Magic’s office, so she reckoned she’d gotten lost along the way.

Her hands were shaking as she tried to ease open the upper desk drawer. It was stuck and every time she gently pulled on it, there was a low grating sound, and every time she jumped at the sound and looked up anxiously towards the door.

She could picture all too clearly some over-eager security wizard opening the door and catching her red-handed. Her life would be over; she’d never heard of the Ministry giving out gratifyingly boring and secure desk jobs to people who’d been charged for a crime by the Wizengamot. Also, after all the years she’d done her very best to steer clear of adventure, it would be extremely embarrassing to be arrested for something this stupid.

Not daring to breathe, she kept the door fixed with a pleading gaze for another minute, before continuing the task ahead. A deep breath, steadier hands this time and trying to pull oh so slowly—

“Just get it over with, nobody is coming!”

Rose yelped and jumped away from the desk, heart beating so loud in her chest she couldn’t listen for sounds from behind the door. She felt dizzy and faint and adventure was exactly as terrible as she’d always said it’d be.

“Shhhhh!”, she hissed at Clara as loud as she dared and gave her a stern look which she hoped would empathise how badly she thought about people who chatted during break-ins. This was even worse than chatting in class!

Clara did not look intimidated, “Calm down, it’s not as if we are breaking in or something. Your mum’s secretary let us in.”

This claim was so outrageously inaccurate, that Rose forgot about being quiet for a moment herself. “He let us in, because you told him mum had said to wait for her here! Which she didn’t. What if she shows up? It’ll be immediately obvious that we lied.”

“So what? Your mum is not going to do anything to you for going into her office …”

“But even if we were allowed to be in the office, we’re certainly not supposed to be opening drawers and stealing magical artefacts!”, she insisted in a loud whisper.

On the other side of her mother’s work desk, Clara’s face crumpled, “I know. I wish this had never happened. I’m sorry! It’s just … we’ll lose the apartment! We’ll lose everything and it’ll all be my fault …” Her face was all red again, just like it had been when she collapsed into Rose’s arms. Pity was heavy in Rose’s stomach as she was reminded why she’d agreed with this absurd plan in the first place.

“I know, I know. Don’t worry, I’ll do it,” she acquiesced and took a deep breath.

This time, she didn’t stop when the drawer creaked but kept pulling until finally it was open and there it lay, silver and ticking quietly to itself, her mum’s old Time-Turner.

Rose slid it into her robe pocket and they left the office as fast as possible. Their hurried exit and mumbled not-really-explanations left the secretary bewildered, simply blinking after them.

When they were finally back in Clara’s parents’ apartment, Rose let herself fall onto the sofa and let out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding, “Thank Merlin it’s over, for a moment, I thought I was going to die in there!”

Clara’s mouth quirked up into a half-smile at Rose’s dramatics, but she still looked worried and lost.

“No, really, I could feel the heart attack coming,” Rose reached up to pull Clara onto the sofa beside her. Shoving her shoulder into Clara’s, she added more seriously, “there’s nobody else I would have suffered through that for.”

“Thank you for doing it, Rose,” Clara shoved her back, “do you want some hot chocolate to calm down?” 

Rose breathed a sigh of relief. This was the Clara she knew, the safe Hufflepuff best friend who had her priorities in order.

After they’d had hot chocolates with extra chocolate and extra sugar, they climbed over baskets of unwashed clothes to hide in the back of the laundry closet to start their real, highly illegal, rescue mission. They pulled the necklace around both of them and carefully spun the Time-Turner five times. Time passing backwards was the strangest thing Rose had ever experienced, even in the back of a closet where they could only hear what was unhappening outside.

After a while, or five hours before, depending on how you looked at it—Rose couldn’t look at it very hard without her head starting to hurt—they heard voices outside.

“… and there’s leftovers in the fridge if you are hungry,” Clara’s mum was talking in rapid-fire speed which matched her footsteps moving back and forth around the flat. “We’ll be back by six or seven. Try not to watch youtube all day. There’s emergency money in the—”

“We’re going to be late, Maria,” Clara’s father interrupted her, “and Clara is old enough to stay home alone, right, sweetie?”

“Mhm, sure. I won’t burn the house down,” Clara’s muffled voice was coming through the door of the closet while Rose could see Clara pressing both her hands over her mouth and looking a bit queasy right beside her.

“No, I know. You’ve just been away for so long. I feel terrible leaving you alone all day when you’ve just come back,” the words were followed by a series of smacking kissing sounds and Rose imagined the earlier Clara being smothered by hugs. In her mind, Clara’s mum looked a younger version of her own Nana Weasley.

After a few more I love yous the door fell shut and the parents’ footsteps faded away in the hall.

Rose could hear the earlier Clara going back to her room and music started to play. The song was slow but catchy, sung by a throaty voice. Compared to the music she was used to, the melody sounded unpolished, very unlike those produced by magical instruments. It made her want to smile.

Instead, she turned to Clara, who was looking pained and hopeful at the same time. “Now?”, still afraid of being heard outside the closet and messing up time forever, Rose mouthed her question more than she whispered.

In response Clara held up a finger, turning her head and listening. There was a clatter from outside, then a door opening—both barely audible over the music.

“I’ll be right back, Alexa!”, shouted the earlier Clara before the apartment door fell shut for the second time.

The Clara beside her rolled her eyes, breathed “now” and started to climb back over the laundry towards the door.

Rose followed suit, or at least, she tried to. The moment Clara opened the closet door when Rose was blinded by the natural light, and the apartment should have been empty, a voice started to talk: "I’m sorry, I don’t understand the question!”

Instead of stepping over it, Rose started and fell into a huge laundry basket. It was a big basket and Rose was small and decidedly unathletic, so it took her a while to get back out of it. Clara had a hard time not laughing out loud while watching her—but she didn’t laugh and Rose appreciated the sentiment.

Finally outside, Rose noticed that the song had ended and another one had started playing. The same singer as before, but without any background instruments, was singing about wanting a car. And the same bodiless voice she’d heard before asked: “I found ‘Body Kit for Mercedes-Benz GL X166 2012-16 Renegade-Design’ for ten thousand seventy-nine pounds and eighty-nine pence. Would you like to buy it?”

Strangely enough, it was at this point, a point in their adventure where Rose felt like nothing made sense anymore and would have given anything to crawl into her bed and never get up again, that Clara’s anxious expression softened somewhat and the suggestion of a smile played around her lips.

“Alexa, cancel,” she said, and then jumped at Rose and hugged her tightly for a long time.

In a way it was okay. It was okay that nothing made any sense anymore, that her palms were sweaty and her head spinning, that they were turning into criminals. It was okay because Rose knew she had helped Clara.

Behind the two girls, the music box went crazy and repeated the same phrase over and over again, like the chorus in a Greek drama.

“—buy me a Mercedes Benz—buy me a Mercedes Benz—buy me a Mercedes Benz—…”

After a while, once Clara had relaxed enough to let go and when Rose could breathe normally again, they left a piece of paper on Clara’s desk, for the earlier Clara to find. On it was scribbled the explanation they had thought up: You left the music on and Alexa ordered loads of expensive Mercedes Benz stuff. You need to get Rose to travel back in time with you so you can fix this and our parents don’t flip out!

Then, the two made their way back over laundry baskets and other hurdles into the laundry closet to wait for their past selves to appear with the time turner.

When they had settled down on two large boxes, Clara reached for Rose’s hand and whispered, “Thank you for doing this, Rose!”

Rose whispered back, “any time,” and in the dark, she sounded almost brave.

That night Rose let her mum tuck her into bed, even though she was technically too old for being tucked in. It was nice to be home, in the present, nice and warm and save in her own bed and to have her mum smooth the covers and whisper “sleep tight and have good dreams” like she had when Rose had been little.

When her mum got up to leave, Rose sat up in bed and said, “Mum, I think I understand why you wanted to go on all those adventures.”

Already at the door, Hermione stopped and came back inside to press a kiss to her daughter's forehead. “And I understand why you'd rather avoid them, honey.”

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to Starbuck for beta reading! 
> 
> Leaving a review will make me smile.


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